


Like real people do.

by Mothman_plays_the_drums



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Fairy boy Hongjoong, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Trigger Warning: Fire, hiker Seonghwa, it's really cute and then it all goes downhill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25891024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mothman_plays_the_drums/pseuds/Mothman_plays_the_drums
Summary: Park Seonghwa has a habit of "getting lost" in the woods in the mountains. If he happens to find a pretty pink haired fairy, well, it's out of his hands.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Kudos: 48





	Like real people do.

**Author's Note:**

> Post 3 of the night!!!
> 
> Enjoy fam
> 
> Also, if you'd like to fully immerse yourself, I listened to Like real people do by Hozier while I wrote this to get that Cottagecore vibe ;)

"you look lost, traveller."

Oh, Seonghwa knows that heavenly voice. He's heard it lilt over a million different words and a thousand beautiful songs, he's never gotten sick of it. He could never get sick of those pretty, flowery words in that lovely voice. 

"Yeah, I dunno how I keep doin' it," Seonghwa replies cooly, "must be getting distracted by somethin' really pretty." His eyes wander along the trees, the way they russle right before his pretty boy appears. The landscape is unceasingly beautiful, wonderfully tucked on a mountain in the Rockies. 

Just ahead of him appears his celestial boy, with a mischievous smile and a pretty, flowing shirt that reminds Seonghwa of the ones they wear in fairytales. "I suppose I must apologize then, for the distraction that makes you stray so far."

Perhaps, though, his Hongjoong is right out of a fairytale, with his pink, translucent wings, and his honey-lavender eyes, and his soft pink hair. A sneaky fairytale.

Seonghwa grins at his appearance, the way he steps closer ever so slowly, ever so teasing like he always does. He tells the fairy, "oh, no worries. I suppose a kiss would fix it." 

Hongjoong raises a suspicious brow at him, but nonetheless he steps forward, hand extended to take Seonghwa's. Seonghwa takes it, and he uses it to twirl Hongjoong and pull him closer. "Your excuses for kissing me become worse by the day, my darling," Joong mumbles when their lips are close enough to touch, but not quite enough to really kiss. 

"I apologise, Hongjoong, would a serenade keep you content?" 

"That actually does sound rather nice, your voice is hypnotic."

"Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips," Seonghwa hums, "we should just kiss like real people do." 

Hongjoong damn near cackles at that, his face lights and his voice pierces the peaceful mountain air in such a way that Seonghwa would like to hear forever. 

Hongjoong says through a smile, "I guess that was warranted. Clever." Then he finally seals the distance between them in a soft kiss, A reclaimance of each other that seals them off from the world outside of their enchanting little bubble. 

The bright blue sky and wintery green trees are their only witnesses to the way they dance together, the way one would do it in medieval years. 

Seonghwa was never quite the dancer he grew into when he became Hongjoong's beloved. He learned everything he knows now from his Hongjoong showing him through a smile and a mischievous giggle. Seonghwa would truly not have it any other way.

It is how they dance, how they communicate at times, and it's how Hongjoong loves to lure Seonghwa to his cottage every single time he visits. Of course, Seonghwa became privy to this long ago, but that did not make him stop following the kind, compassionate boy to his home. 

It is always there that Hongjoong loses his sneaky exterior, that he melts into Seonghwa's arms and whispers the sweetest nothings into his ear. God, Seonghwa could die here, holding Hongjoong against the counter and kissing him slow. 

"You are the most handsome thing to walk through my forest, my beautiful human," Hongjoong whispers as he smiles, softly, full of love.

"And you are the most handsome thing I never thought to find in this forest," Seonghwa replies. He kisses Hongjoong again, lulls to the sounds Hongjoong's cabin makes when the windows remain open. The wind whistles to Hongjoong's whim, blowing through wind chimes and whistles to make a beautiful song (a method Hongjoong set up because he hates to be in silence.) It takes everything in Seonghwa not to stay here forever. Every day and every night that he spends with his lover brings him closer to remembering he has responsibilities and people who'd like to hear from him. 

How easy would it be to just slip away? 

"Seonghwa," Joong whispers against his lips, "you're forgetting again. I will not ask you to stay, to avoid your life out there. You are worth more to me than your time, and you are worth more to them than a call. *They* are worth more to you than a responsibility." 

Seonghwa might just ignore all of that if Hongjoong continues to love him like this. Still, he nods and kisses along Hongjoong's jaw, listens for the tells of Hongjoong relaxing. "I know, dear. Let me pretend for a while. Let me disappear tonight, into your loving arms." 

"You know I'd never say no to that."

Hongjoong would never take for granted the nights he gets to spend with his love. 

Hongjoong always makes dinner that he may complain about, but he won't take for granted Seonghwa running his fingers up and down his back as the fairy cooks, nor the way Seonghwa's gaze remains soft and loving on him. It's too much to ever find boring. 

He cannot take for granted how gently Seonghwa reorganizes Hongjoong's many plants, how he smiles and converses with them, just as Hongjoong does. He has a name for every single one of Hongjoong's plants, all thirty-two of them. How Hwa came up with that many names runs beyond Hongjoong's imagination, but he loves it nonetheless.

No, there's not a single thing he takes for granted, not even the way his cat absolutely adores the human. Oh, Cosmo loves Seonghwa like Hongjoong loves the stars and galaxies Cosmo is made after, and as such, Hongjoong loves Seonghwa so much more.

He loves and cherishes Seonghwa now, when they lie in bed together, mouths glued against each other and arms tight around each other. 

He can't even exaggerate in saying that Seonghwa is the most beautiful man to walk these woods. It would even be an understatement.

"S-seong," Hongjoong is cut off with a kiss, "Seonghwa. You have to go home early tomorrow. You have work, don't you?"

"I do, it's devastating."

Hongjoong giggles, and Seonghwa is quick to follow. He has the most gorgeous dialect, Hongjoong has noticed over the many years they've spent together. His voice is smooth, and low in a way that just lulls Hongjoong into peace. 

"I promise to come back to you soon, dove." 

Hongjoong grins at his lover's promise and bothers not with responding, instead kissing Seonghwa's nose, and his cheek, and his neck, until he burrows into Seonghwa's chest and falls asleep there, in his lover's embrace.

~~~

The mountain is... Odd, today. 

Seonghwa can feel the wind shifting every few seconds in an unsettling uncertainty, and the normally comforting breezes up his neck are harsher, they comb up and down his body, they push him up, farther into the woods. He knows where they're taking him, he's just unsure and somewhat worried for why. 

By now, Hongjoong should have known he's coming. By now, Hongjoong should know he's on his way, normally they'd meet in the middle. It's not an emergency, per say, that Hongjoong isn't here to greet him, it's just a point of concern. It's a shot in the dark, he thinks, to call out to him, but it's worked before, on the earliest occasions of Seonghwa returning to meet Hongjoong. "Hongjoong? My love?" 

He receives no answer except the wind continuing to push him, further upsetting the atmosphere of the normally quiet mountain. 

It hits him, now, that he'd seen ashes falling at the bottom of the mountain, and that the small white particles in the air aren't just pretty little pieces of the mountain. 

They mean fire.

Seonghwa takes off at the wind's final insistence. 

He knows this trail, he knows these woods by heart now, especially the off-trail route to his lover's home. He only hopes more than anything that his house is untouched. That Hongjoong is okay. 

The woods around him grow increasingly worrying as he delves deeper, the trees that are set aflame coming into view, far in the distance. They seem to follow him, growing closer, and bigger in number as he treads through, frantically, for his beloved fairy. 

"Hongjoong," he calls as he continues, "Hongjoong! It's me, baby!" His pace continues relentlessly, despite his legs beginning to burn. His lungs burn as well with the ash in the air and the way he screams. 

Finally, he finds it. 

It almost seems like another world. The smoke rises, blocking out the sun, but that doesn't mean it's dark. The small cottage in the middle of the small clearing Seonghwa knows so well lights up the whole area with how set aflame it is. 

Right ahead of it sits a fairy, and in his arms a small cat. 

His heart breaks at the sight of just how gone it already looks. He sprints forward, finally dropping to his knees and enveloping both man and cat into his arms. He doesn't know how he can cry with how dry and hot it is, but he does, with every year he has in him. 

Hongjoong holds onto him like a final life support, his sobs ringing out above the roaring of the fire and sending shockwaves through his lover.

It takes too long for Seonghwa to come back to himself, to yank Hongjoong up and tell him they need to go. 

They barely make it out with their breaths. 

When they do, Hongjoong let's poor Cosmo stand on his own legs, knowing he'll stay close. Then, he clings right onto Seonghwa again. Not a word is spoken between the two as they sob in grief of the reality of Hongjoong's loss. 

The fabric Seonghwa feels under the fingertips on Hongjoong's body belongs to a sweatshirt he left at the cottage a year ago. It doesn't hit him yet that Hongjoong pulled on in urgency before he ran away from the house, not that he seemed it one of the only most important things to pull away. In the same way, Hongjoong doesn't put any thought to Seonghwa's desperate, anxious cries. As if he feared for Hongjoong more than he feared himself. 

They are not safe from the fire, and they know that, but they take a moment anyway, to weep in each other's arms as if they had really lost each other. 

~~~

Seonghwa enters the living room of his own apartment, temporarily caught off guard by the fairy boy sitting there, before he hands him a mug of tea. Hongjoong takes it eagerly and looks up Seonghwa like he'd just returned all that was lost. 

Seonghwa pulls Hongjoong's face in for the umpteenth time since they got home and kisses softly on his forehead. 

"Take a shower if you want, baby. Or keep crying, or pet Cosmo, or... Or anything you need... And you can ask me, as well. If you need love, or some tea, or clean clothes, or a shoulder to cry on, Anything..."

Hongjoong's face twists, and it's obvious he's trying so hard to keep his tears at Bay, but he fails to stop it, and that's ok. Seonghwa would let him cry for hours on end if that's what could help him cope. 

His eyes open, just barely, and Seonghwa wipes away the tears that spill from them. 

"I know, Darling," he whispers. It's the small comfort he can give in such a horrific situation. He can't say it will be ok if he doesn't know, and he can't ask how Hongjoong is doing, all he can do is offer. 

And he does. 

"I'm right here. If you need me, I'll be right here. I promise."

And for now, it's all Hongjoong needs. He sets the tea on the table and grips onto Seonghwa and begs him to stay, so Seonghwa does, through the night, and in the moments in between Hongjoong's fitful hours of sleep, and even in the morning when Hongjoong is too afraid to ask, "what's next?" 

Seonghwa stays near, and he takes days off, and he keeps Hongjoong company.

On one Friday evening, three months later (two after Hongjoong found a spell to conceal his wings, and one and a half since he got a job,) Hongjoong asks if he can stay.

It's over takeout, In the middle of the night after an evening where Hongjoong worked a late shift. Seonghwa doesn't know why his eyes fill with tears and he begins to shake in Seonghwa's arms before he asks. 

"Seonghwa, can I live with you?" 

And Seonghwa, as whipped as he is, has never agreed to something so quickly in his life.


End file.
